AUDIOSCAN
Diamond Sutra
(Times Music)

Remixing is the order of the day with a lot more such cassettes hitting the market than the original ones. This album goes beyond that. It sets ancient Indian chants like the Gayatri Mantra to today’s world music.

The man behind the makeover is Biddu, known best in India for his Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aye, toh baat ban jaye from the Feroze Khan flick, Qurbani. What is not that well known is that he has had several worldwide hits, including Kung fu fighting, I love to love and Summer of 42, which have sold 36 million records till date.

He says the concept of this album came about just after the Twin Towers disaster. People shared a common sense of loss, together with a lack of spiritual direction.

"I’ve composed songs that have their roots in the Sanskrit language. The melodic four-line sutras offer a comforting repetitive and trance-like feel," says the man from Bangalore.

The album opens with the Gayatri Mantra. In trying to fit it into the modern metre, quite a few compromises have been made with the intonation. Similarly, he could have avoided the Bollywood strings in Nirvana. This problem is not there in others like Tamaso ma jyotir gamay and Om Jai Jagdish Hare.

Music-wise, the best job has been done on the Buddhist chant, Buddham saranam gachhchhami.

War of the DJs-IV
(Times Music)

Speaking of remixes, newer tricks are being tried out to keep the interest alive. Here, different DJs are working out in their own style so that the listeners can compare who is the grooviest of them all.

We have DJs Amit, Taral, Whosane, Anand-Nitin, Akbar Sami, Suketu, Notorious, Gaurav, Nasha and Russel transforming Koi rook na deewane ko from the film Priyatama, Motiyon ki ladi hoon main from Loafer, Yeh ladka hai Allah from Hum Kissie Se Kam Nahin, etc. So who wins? None really. The remixing is okay but not exceptional. In fact, give me the originals any day. — ASC